The subject matter described and/or illustrated herein relates generally to receptacle connectors.
Receptacle connectors are known for use in a variety of applications, such as, but not limited to, being mounted to a circuit board, for use within the host equipment that accepts a transceiver assembly, for terminating a jumper cable, and/or the like. Receptacle connectors typically include a slot that is configured to receive the plug of a mating connector therein. One or more rows of contacts are arranged within the slot for engagement with corresponding contacts of the mating connector. The contacts may be arranged in differential pairs of signal contacts, with ground contacts extending between the differential pairs in a ground-signal-signal-ground (G-S-S-G) pattern of the contacts.
Known receptacle connectors are not without disadvantages. For example, the signal contacts may exhibit undesirable resonant frequency noise spikes if the ground contacts are not electrically commoned. Ground bars or the like may therefore be used to electrically common the ground contacts together. But, known ground bars are connected to the ground contacts with beams that engage the ground contacts at a separable interface, which may cause difficulty controlling the mating normal force between the receptacle and mating connectors. Moreover, the separable interface between the ground bus and the ground contacts may be unreliable.